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Tomato Salad

A tomato salad dressed with mashed egg yolks, mustard, and tomato juice, garnished with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Tomato Salad

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,169 recipes mention both. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the mashed egg yolks, mustard, salt, pepper, sugar, and tomato juice.

  2. Add vinegar to achieve your desired sourness.

  3. Stir in the celery seed or chopped celery.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the sliced tomatoes.

  2. Garnish with chopped egg whites or egg rings.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and fresh, juicy base of the salad.
Egg yolks
Emulsify and thicken the dressing, giving it a creamy, rich body.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that balances the sweetness and richness of the dressing.
Tomato juice
Supplies moisture and liquid body to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity, giving the dressing its sour bite.

The step that matters

Add the vinegar gradually. Acid can thin and curdle an egg-based dressing if overdone, and its sharpness intensifies as it sits. Adding it a little at a time and tasting lets you reach the desired sourness without making the dressing harsh or watery.

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, egg, mustard, pepper, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  2. Dillabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Capersabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, egg, mustard, pepper, sugar, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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